First Date?
by roothlace
Summary: It sure felt like a first date to both of them...


_Birds of Prey_ doesn't belong to me.

**First Date?**

Reese coughed; he couldn't believe what he had just been through.

"Are you alright?" Helena asked, startling him.

"With which part, hmm?" Helena just stared at him as he ranted on. "Getting drowned by Liquid Guy? Not knowing what's real anymore? Or getting dehydrated from five hours in a sauna?"

"This was a slow night," Helena told him calmly.

"What am I supposed to do with what I've just seen?" He walked around just trying to gather his thought. "What, just forget about it?"

"If you talk," Helena told him, "Nobody's gonna believe you."

"They will if you come with me." He needed to be able to get other people to understand what had just happened.

"I can't do that, Reese." Helena told him. "That's your world not mine."

"So then we're right back where we started."

"You don't trust me?" Helena was incredulous.

"You won't tell me who you are." Reese insisted. "Or why you do what you do."

"Right now, you're asking for more than I can give," Helena couldn't believe she had actually told him that, that she was even having this conversation with him.

"You saved my life," Reese said, "and I'm grateful. But gratitude is not the same as trust. Can't you just tell me, who you are?"

Helena looked at him, wishing she could just tell him everything, for the first time in her life she wanted to tell somebody exactly who she was and why she did what she did but she just couldn't tell him, a stranger, a detective, "It's… complicated." She should have stopped there, she didn't owe him anything but she found herself trying to make him understand, "Reese, sometimes you just have to make the leap…let go… and believe."

"I wish I could."

000

As Detective Reese made his way back to his apartment later that night, he couldn't help but smile and shake his head in wonder and pure amazement. First, he'd had to deal with the fact that some superhuman guy, I mean, a guy would could turn himself into water, had tried to kill him, but secondly and most importantly, he'd had a chance to spend time with the most amazing woman he'd met in a long time, although she still refused to tell him who she really was.

Obviously, he could tell that there was something …well… strange about her. She tended to just appear at crime scenes and she was fast and fought very well. That she was beautiful with the most amazing eyes didn't hurt as well.

Normally on a night like this, when Reese had been beaten within an inch of his life, okay, today, he'd been almost choked to death; he'd write up his report as soon as possible – he was very conscientious about such things – and then go home and punch a bag until he got rid of all the rage but not today.

Today, he was giddy and excited, in fact if he'd been asked he would have said that it was like… a first date. Not that horrible first date where you keep hoping that someone, anyone, will interrupt you to make it end, not those ones where hearing that you have to get back to work is a relief, no, not all, this was a perfect first date, one that had such promise, a first date that made you think… last first date.

He knew it was a bit foolish, the mysterious woman who wouldn't even tell him her name had just been doing her job, saving his life and she had and even when they'd been locked up in the sauna, hiding from Slick Waters, she'd refused to tell him anything personal, she'd refused to go down with him to the station and he really wanted her to explain why she did what she did and he wasn't even sure he trusted her… still he couldn't shake the first date feeling.

000

"It was weird fighting side by side with Reese."

"So, what was it like?" Barbara asked.

"Like… a first date," Helena replied with hesitation.

At her friend's look she added, "you know, not those horrible 'I can't wait to get out of here' first dates, but more like this could be going somewhere first date."

Barbara laughed and couldn't help, "like you would know anything about that."

"I date," Helena said defensively.

"Really? When was the last time you went on a date?"

"It's your fault, you know," Helena told her, "I'm always out there fighting bad guys when I should be dating."

"Okay," Barbara conceded, "so first date, huh?"

"Shut up."

"You're the one who started it," Barbara reminded her.

"What I meant is that I was surprisingly comfortable with him, that's all."

"That's all?" Barbara asked. "Helena, it's like when you're with him, you want to share everything, and you can barely keep your mouth shut."

"So he's really gotten under your skin, hasn't he?" Barbara asked when her friend kept quiet.

"You know me," Helena reminded her, "guys don't get to me. Besides, who has time for a real relationship, anyway?"

"Yeah," Barbara agreed.

000

As Helena finally entered her bed later that night she couldn't help but smile, Reese definitely didn't trust her, he wanted to know more than she was willing to share; but she couldn't shake the first date with promise feeling.

000


End file.
